Nurses and physicians attitudes towards factors related to hospitalized patient safety

Introduction The attitudes of healthcare staff towards patients' safety, including awareness of the risk for adverse events, are significant elements of an organization's safety culture. Aim of research To evaluate nurses and physicians' attitudes towards factors influencing hospitalized patient safety. Materials and methods The research included 606 nurses and 527 physicians employed in surgical and medical wards in 21 Polish hospitals around the country. The Polish adaptation of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was used to evaluate the factors influencing attitudes towards patient safety. Results Both nurses and physicians scored highest in stress recognition (SR) (71.6 and 80.86), while they evaluated working conditions (WC) the lowest (45.82 and 52,09). Nurses achieved statistically significantly lower scores compared to physicians in every aspect of the safety attitudes evaluation (p<0.05). The staff working in surgical wards obtained higher scores within stress recognition (SR) compared to the staff working in medical wards (78.12 vs. 73.72; p = 0.001). Overall, positive working conditions and effective teamwork can contribute to improving employees' attitudes towards patient safety. Conclusions The results help identify unit level vulnerabilities associated with staff attitudes toward patient safety. They underscore the importance of management strategies that account for staff coping with occupational stressors to improve patient safety.